Monday, February 6, 2006

a federal jury awarded Texas Instruments $112 million in patent damages for infringement by Globespan Virata, a subsidiary of Conexant Systems, of two TI patents and one Stanford University patent covering DSL modems. The jury also found that Globespan's infringement was willful, which would allow the district court judge to multiply the damages by up to three times the award.

TI said the case was initiated by Globespan in June 2003 in response to TI's offer to license the technology to Globespan. TI is the exclusive licensor of the Stanford patents. This technology is licensed to most of the industry. Globespan refused to take a license and filed an action in U.S. District Court against TI and Stanford claiming that the license program violated antitrust laws. Globespan also claimed that the TI and Stanford patents were not valid and not infringed by Globespan's products. TI filed counterclaims in August 2003 asserting three of the patents in the suit. The jury found that all claims of the three patents are valid and infringed by Globespan.